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Setting up shipping charges and tax rates

Apr 27, 2014 12:51 pm

Entering Tax Rates
Once you've added items to a directory with commerce information or created a form that uses the Commerce module, you can enter the tax rates for each state you plan to sell items to. If you do not calculate taxes for items sold through the website, you can skip this step and continue with setting up zone tables.

To enter tax rates, take the following steps:

Click on the Tax tab.

Click on the Edit button next to the state to which you want to add a tax rate.

In the Tax field, enter the tax percentage. Note that you enter 5 for a 5% tax rate. Compounded tax rates can also be entered.

If there is a secondary tax (Canada only), enter it in the Secondary Tax field.

If you would like to add Tax Compounding, set the dropdown selector to Yes.

If you would like to include shipping the tax rate, select Yes from from the dropdown.

Click Save to save the tax rate.

Setting Up Shipping Zone Tables
Zones are used for calculating shipping distances in the Commerce module. To set up zones, enter zip code zones or state zones into tables to calculate these shipping distances. Each shipping rate you set up on the Shipping tab must have a corresponding zone table associated with it.Zones simply let the system calculate shipping distances. When you create zones, you are grouping geographic regions either by state or zip code. When items are shipped, any shipments to locations in that zone have the same shipping rate.

When you import a zone table, specify your location and all zones are then calculated based on your point of origin. One thing to note is that a shipping rate is always calculated with the same point of origin.

To set up a zone table, take the following steps:

Click the Shipping Tab, and the Zones subtab.

To add a zone based on zip codes:
- Click on the Add Zones by Zip Code button.
- Enter a unique name for the zone table in the ZIP field.
- Click Save.
- In the first Start Zip field, enter the first zip code range for the first zone. Note that the first zip code is 00400.
- In the first End Zip field, enter the last zip code in the zip code range for the first zone. Note that the last zip code is 99499.

In the first Zone field, enter a zone number for the range of zip codes. This is the number you enter when setting up shipping rates.
- Repeat the above steps for each zip code range.
- Once you have finished adding zip codes, click Save.

To add a zone based on states:
- Under the Zones subtab, click on the Import UPS Zip Code Zones button.
- Follow the on-screen instructions for dowloading a zone file to your computer and uploading the corresponding CSV file, then click Import.
- Click Save. The zip code zones will have been imported.

Once you have finished entering zones, you can set up shipping rates.

Setting Up Shipping Rates
Once you have set up shipping zones, you can begin adding shipping rates for each zone. Shipping rates have several components that work together to calculate how much it costs to ship items to a location. You must identify the point of origin of the sale and where the item is to be shipped. The system uses zones configured under the Zones tab to determine which zone items originate from and where the item is shipped, and these are determined by state or zip code.

The second component of a shipping rate is the weight of the items that are being shipped. The weight of a shipment is calculated by adding all of the weights of the items in the shipment together.

The third component of the shipping rate is the actual shipping rate of the carrier that provides the shipping services, such as UPS or FedEx. These carriers provide rate tables that specify the cost of shipping by location and weight.

It is strongly recommended that you import shipping rates instead of manually entering them. Usually, shipping rare tables extensive and require significant time to match rates with zones. The shipping rate tables you import make it easy to get the latest rates from UPS and FedEx into the Commerce module. You should only manually create shipping creates if you have only a small number of shipping rates or items.

Shipping rates frequently change for carriers due to many factors. Fluctuations in the price of gasoline are usually the biggest contributor to carrier shipping rate changes. Because of this, you should update your shipping rates on a regular basis. If you do not change them frequently, you may want to add a surcharge to each order to account for fluctuations.

To set up a shipping rate, take the following steps:

Click on the Shipping tab.

Click on the Add Shipping Option button. Note that if you are using more than 10 shipping weight ranges, it is recommended that you import shipping rates for a carrier and edit those rates, rather than adding a shipping option manually.

In the Shipping Option field, select a carrier—UPS, FedEx, or Custom. Note that depending on the Shipping Option you select, you will be asked to input out different information..

In the Option Name field, enter a unique name for the shipping option. This name is what appears when visitors select a shipping option when ordering items.

Enter the surcharge for the item, if applicable, and select Flat Charge or Percent from the dropdown, depending on whether you would like to use a predefined dollar amount or a percentage of the order total.

If you would like the shipping option to be active on the live site, select Yes from the dropdown menu, then click Save.

UPS/FedEx Information

UPS
To import UPS shipping rates, click on the Import UPS Rate File button and follow the on-screen directions to download the UPS rate file and import it your computer for use in the Commerce module.

FedEx
To set up FedEx information, click on the FedEx Setup button and enter your organization's FedEx account information and origin information. Because FedEx shipping rates are obtained dynamically via web services, after entering the authentication information, be sure to click the Test FedEx Connection button to verify that your connection works. Then you can click Apply or Save to save the information to the Commerce module.